Clarke's nails dugs into the palms of her clenched fists as Raven drove quickly and recklessly down the open road. The inside of the car was dimly lit with the only light source coming from the moon and from the street lamps they passed every so often. Although it was physically hard to see, Clarke knew what expression had taken over Raven's face. It was the same expression the eldest sister had when Octavia had left home for New York two years back. It was the same expression she had when the doctors came out into the lobby to tell them that their grandmother had passed. It was the same expression that stayed fixed on her sister's face when they had gotten home from the hospital that night and there was a dull numbness that floated through the once lively manor.
It was the expression Raven had when she desperately wanted to cry but refused to let the tears fall. It was the gritted teeth that forced Raven's jaw to look sharper than it actually was. It was Raven's cheekbones that protruded ever so slightly. But, most of all it was Raven's eyes. Her eyes that that looked lifeless and glazed over as she stared onto the open road ahead, just thinking. Raven's eyes gave away more than her words ever could.
Clarke knew her sister all too well. She knew what she was thinking and how she was feeling even though Raven never communicated. Raven was a brick wall of emotions, too strong with too much pride, there was something deep down inside of the eldest sister that told her emotions were weak, that they led to people getting hurt and they drove a stake in relationships. Raven knew that all too well.
Clarke wanted desperately for Raven, just once, to actually talk to her. To spill everything she had felt in the last few years. Clarke just wanted to feel connected to her sister again, like they used to be when they were little. Although Clarke didn't remember much from that time, she clung onto those memories of the friendship she had with Raven. They shared absolutely everything, from deep dark secrets to clothing, they indulged in several blood pacts and in the middle of the night, they formed promises that they'd take to the grave.
They were sisters and Clarke couldn't even remember the last time Raven told her that she loved her.
"Raven, slow down." Clarke hastitly fastened her seatbelt.
Raven's sweaty hands gripped the steering wheel tightly, her foot pressed hard on the gas pedal. She was afraid. Afraid of a lot of things - that they'd get to Octavia to late, that her and her sisters were all going to die tonight, that they were not powerful enough to take on the ancient demon, but most of all she was afraid of the lake house. Raven had tried her best to stay away from the lake that took her mother's life, there was just one too many painful memories.
Raven couldn't help but laugh, "Slow down? Octavia's been kidnapped by a fucking demon for god's sake."
Clarke rolled her eyes "I understand that, Raven. But we won't be any help if we die in a car wreck first."
Raven stayed silent, her eyes fixed on the road that lay before her. "He's only killed two witches." she mumbled, her voice distant.
"What?" Clarke asked, gripping onto the passenger door's handle trying to steady herself in the fast moving vehicle.
"Even if he kills all three of us, that won't be enough to break the cycle." Raven was almost talking to herself at this point, she was trying to find a plausible reason for why the demon wasn't going to finish what he started. "What does he want..." Raven's foot pressed down harder on the gas pedal as she thought of her helpless youngest sister, who was probably panicking with no active power of her own to help her out of the situation. She thought of poor Octavia, the then 19 year old girl who cried during the Hannah Montana finale. She thought of how Octavia's seemingly normal, human life had disappeared in only a matter of two weeks. She thought of poor Octavia, and how she didn't deserve any of this.
"Leaving? What do you mean you're leaving?" Raven's voice got louder with each word.
Octavia ran a hand through her hair and set down her suitcase. She breathed out an exasperated sigh, "I just need to be on my own. I can't live off of you and Clarke anymore." Octavia chuckled as if she couldn't believe this was happening. "And I just can't be around Grams right now, not while she's like this." Octavia spoke quietly, she knew if her resting grandmother heard a word from this conversation that she would storm down the stairs and use all of her fleeing energy to try and convince Octavia to stay - she was always big on the sisters sticking together.
Clarke crossed her arms over her chest as she stood behind Raven. She had known about this plan for months and had even helped Octavia fund it. Octavia was the youngest and if anyone had the best chance out there, Clarke knew it would be her. Clarke was glad to be staying behind to care for their sick grandmother, she would always give up her own life in order for her sisters to live.
The eldest sister scoffed and bit down on her lip - of course Octavia would do something reckless and spontaneous as this, how could she leave her other sisters high and dry? "Where did you even get the money for the ticket?" Raven question, knowing that her money would never go to a cause like this.
Octavia kept her mouth shut, she didn't need Raven hating Clarke as well. "I've been saving up." Octavia lied with a shrug of her shoulders. Her eyes moved to the clock on the wall, "Look, I - I got to go." The sister picked up her suitcase and turned on her heels.
"If you walk out that door," Raven warned with a nagging finger, something their mothers always used to do. "Don't ever come back."
Octavia stopped dead in her tracks. There was a moment of silence in the house. Clarke bit her nails anxiously, her eyes flashing back and forth between her two sisters.
Then, Octavia walked out, slamming the door behind her, into the same San Franciscan storm she would arrive back in two years later.
The impact of the door caused the chandelier hanging above Raven's head to shiver.
It was in that moment that the powerful bond between three sisters was broken.
Finn added a leafy green herb to the boiling pot, causing the concoction to fizzle and explode - smoke rising from the pot and floating up to the ceiling of Finn's kitchen.
The witch cussed under his breath while waving his hands to try and get the smoke to disperse. He breathed out and flicked a stray lock of hair away from his eyes.
Finn was beyond irritated, he desperately wanted to give up but there was a nagging voice at the back of his head coaxing him into continuing. His kitchen was a mess, exotic herbs and dead insect parts were scattered upon counters and littered on the floor. Shattered glass from vials Finn had broken with his bare hands lay in the sink. Pages from the Collin's book of shadows were now splattered with liquids of failed potions.
He had been training his powers and playing with spells and potions for 8 years now and he couldn't even create a decent potion to summon up the specific darklighter that had attacked him. There was no way he would be able to vanquish the evil being if he couldn't penetrate the force that had the darklighter protected and unable to be tracked. He didn't care about whatever power that was intervening, he didn't care if he was powerful enough or strong enough.
Finn would call on every single one of his ancestors and drain every ounce of power he had within him, just to keep Bellamy safe.
There was a familiar sparkling sound followed by blue and white orbs that took the shape of Bellamy's body, it took a second for Bellamy to fully materialize within Finn's kitchen.
"What?" Finn spat out as he rubbed his temples in frustration.
"Finn..." Bellamy's eyes wandered to Finn's white t-shirt that had been stained with various liquids, then up to his bruised eye bags, then up to his long dark hair that looked as if it hadn't been washed in days. "What happened to you?"
Finn threw his head back in a delirious laugh, "Eight fucking years happened, Bell." Finn ran a hand through his hair as he absent mindlessly chanted the phrase under his breath: eight fucking years, eight fucking years, eight fucking years.
Bellamy took a step closer towards Finn, his eyes now wandering over the mess of a kitchen. "Finn..." was all he could say, his breath taken back by the sight of his best friend who was once so strong, now being destroyed in a matter of days.
There was an awkward silence between the two as Finn stared intently at his book of shadows, almost as if he was trying to look through it. Finn didn't want to look at Bellamy no matter what, because every time he did his heart twitched with some indescribable emotion he felt for the man. It would all just make him even angrier.
"What are you doing?" Bellamy's voice echoed throughout the house, his tone was delicate, almost like a comforting mother's. The whitelighter's fingers picked up and set down multiple herbs and dead insects, trying to figure our the answer to his question himself. "What is this potion for?"
"What else would it be for?" Finn screamed out, his hands flying away from his face in frustration, causing Bellamy to flinch and take a step back. The rude and angry tone that Finn always took up with Bellamy was unintentional, he didn't know why but whenever the two were alone, he would get frustrated. Finn had a lot in common with Raven, in the sense that they weren't really good at expressing their feelings to the ones they loved the most.
"You're trying to summon that darklighter." Bellamy
spoke with a quizzical expression, his brows furrowed as his eyes fell upon the Collin's book of shadows which was open to its 'darklighters' page. Bellamy's fingers trailed across the words on the page, "Why?" his eyes shot up to meet Finn's.
"For you!" Finn yelled out the obvious. In his fit of frustration and anger, his arms swung across the table violently, smacking the pot and all of its contents onto the floor. "It's always been for you..." the witch's voice was a low mumble as his body began to shake slightly, a frown quickly taking over his face as his eyes started tearing up. Finn hated crying in front of Bellamy, but this time he couldn't stop the tears from flowing.
Finn wanted Bellamy, he needed him. His arms wove in the air like a child reaching for their favorite teddy bear.
Bellamy stepped over the mess on the floor and made his way into Finn's open arms. He pulled Finn closer into his body and could feel every shape and curve of the boy's shape clashing against his own. Bellamy delicately wove his gentle fingers through Finn's hair, whispering words of comfort into the boy's ear and repeating his promises from eight years ago, "I'm always gonna be here, Finn."
The words sent shivers down Finn's spine as he clutched the fabric of Bellamy's shirt a little tighter. He knew Bellamy was always gonna be here. He knew that Bellamy would always stand by him. He knew that Bellamy loved him.
But above all, Finn knew Bellamy would never love him the same way he loved his whitelighter.
And that made him cry just a bit more.
Raven had barely stopped the car when she hopped out and took of running up the path that led to the lake house.
Clarke quickly unfastened her seatbelt and began running to try and catch up with her sister. As she jogged up the path, Clarke pulled out her phone to check the time, it was almost 10pm. Thelonious wouldn't be gone for another two hours, they can't sit around and wait. They had to defeat him, now.
"I think I know what I'm afraid of." Clarke said as she reached her sister, taking Raven's hands and interlocking their fingers together - a symbol that portrayed how close they were.
Raven's breath caught in her throat as her eyes landed on the lake house, she hadn't been here in years.
Her mind flashed to that horrifying night. The lot was littered with police and ambulances, their sirens sounded incredibly loud to her then small ears. Her eyes were filled with the police's red and blue flashing lights, Raven felt as if she was viewing the world through 3D movie glasses. She could remember the face of the police who began asking her questions about her mother, he was extremely tall with tan skin, his eyes were a shade of blue that matched the water her mother was killed in, he had a cheesy mustache and his dark black hair was slicked back as if he came from the 50s. Raven could remember her grandmother eclipsing her eyes with her hands, trying to shield her from the view of the strange men lifting her mother's cold body from the bottom of the lake. But Raven saw everything from a crack through her grandmother's fingers. Raven didn't understand why her mother who once looked so young and beautiful and simply full of life now looked so dull and blue and... dead. From that day on Raven vowed to never return the lake house.
Raven could now only think of the last thing she told her mother, "I love you."
But now she was back at the lot that took her mother away from her, and it wasn't until she felt Clarke's fingers enclose around her own and heard her younger sister's voice, did she remember where they were and why. "What is it?" Raven asked as they walked around the outside of the house.
"I think I'm just afraid of dying without living. Y'know? I want to meet the one and settle down and have kids..." Clarke's mind wandered to her ideal future life. "But I don't want my kids to have to live like this... with magic and demons and stuff. I just want them to be normal."
Raven nodded her head in agreement, "I'm afraid of that too, Clarke." Her voice was distant as her eyes peered through the darkness trying to locate Octavia. Raven gripped onto Clarke's hand a little tighter as they neared the house's backyard, which faced the start of the lake.
"There she is!" Clarke whispered, pointing to a body laying on the edge of the dock.
"But where is he?" Raven mumbled to herself.
The two sisters began walking closer to the dock, Raven's feet dragging heavily through the sand. The eldest sister absolutely did not want too get close to the lake, she felt as if she could almost see her mother's cold body drifting to the surface of the water. Raven felt a cold shiver down her spine as her mind flashed to thoughts filled with horror of the unimaginable. She just had to keep on reminding herself to take another step, and another, and eventually they would reach Octavia and get the hell out of there.
Goosebumps began protruding from Raven's skin as she felt the wood planks of the dock underneath her feet. Clarke was practically dragging her by this point, "Raven, come on." she would whisper to her every so often.
Raven couldn't even speak as her breaths came out short and ragged, sweat forming on her forehead and her heart thumping in her chest faster and faster as they came upon Octavia's unconscious body. Clarke kneeled down, "Octavia?" she whispered, pulling her body so the youngest sister could face them.
Octavia wasn't unconscious. Her muffled shouts tried to pierce the piece of tape over her mouth in vain, as her tied hands flailed violently in the air.
Octavia's scream cut violently through the night air as Clarke pulled the tape off of her mouth, "Behind you!"
Raven spun around and was faced with Thelonious and his devilish grin. The eldest sister quickly thrusted her hand in the air to try and move the demon telekinetically, but to no avail, her powers were paralyzed in his presence. "You haven't killed enough witches. Even if you kill all three of us..." Raven choked up the words.
Thelonious titled his head to the side, his brows furrowed, he couldn't believe the most powerful witches in the world were this stupid. "I'd be doing the source a favor if I got rid of all three Charmed Ones." Thelonious smiled widely, revealing yellow teeth. "I am positive she'd repay the favor by breaking my cycle, allowing me to roam the earth forever..." The demon's voice bellowed with sarcasm.
"Source..." Raven whispered, not understanding who or what this Source was.
Clarke raised her hands in an effort to freeze the man, but once again, there was nothing.
"Tsk tsk..." Thelonious clicked his tongue against his teeth. "Weak." he spat out at the witches. He brought his arm up into the air and pushed it against Raven's body, forcing her off the dock and into the lake.
"Raven!" the two other sisters screamed in unison. Clarke got up off of her knees and was just about to jump in after her older sister when the demon held her back by her arms.
"You both get to watch your sister die." he whispered menacingly into Clarke's ear as she struggled in his grasp. "Then, I'll kill you next."
Raven was met with the coldness of the water as her body quickly sunk to the bottom. She knew how to swim, but suddenly forgot as she floated through the same body of water that her mother died in. Raven's thoughts were clouded with Clarke and Octavia, and she could faintly see them peering down into the water's surface from the dock - the only light illuminating the shapes of her sisters was from the moon. She desperately wanted to swim up and help them, but she just couldn't fight against the force that was pulling her down. Raven felt weak and with weakness came death.
The eldest sister's body got colder and a rush of numbness came over her. She wanted to breathe again but couldn't risk water entering her lungs. Oh how she missed breathing and air, the common commodity had come to seem like a luxury deep down in the water.
Raven was close to death, and she had given in. It seemed as if hours had passed since Thelonious had pushed her off the dock. She was ready to go, to be able to breathe, to not feel so weak. There was a bright light in the water and Raven could faintly make out the shape of a woman coming out of it.
But it was no ordinary woman, it was her mother. Her mother who had died in this same water only twenty years ago, her mother who was beautiful and looked like an even mix between all three of her daughters, her mother who appeared elegantly and floated through the water, her ghostly hand extended toward Raven.
"Raven..." the angelic voice whispered, even through they were in water, Raven could hear perfectly. It felt as if her mother was speaking directly in Raven's head.
"Mom?" Raven thinks out loud.
"Raven... you must face your fears, Raven." the angelic voice gets closer and closer, Raven suddenly felt as if she could breathe again. "Trust in the greatest powers, love."
Raven reaches her hand out and can feel the skin of her mother's fingers making contact with her own. Her mother speaks to her again, "Save yourself, save your sisters. Don't be afraid."
The mother and daughter interlock their fingers together, and rise up to the surface. The ghostly figure disappears as Raven pulls herself up onto the dock.
"Raven!" Octavia and Clarke shout excitedly. Clarke breaks away from the now bewildered Thelonious' grasp and helps Raven up.
"What... you were suppose to die down there. Your fear, drowning..." Thelonious tries to make sense of the situation.
"I'm not afraid anymore." Raven stares deep into the eyes of the demon, her voice strong and powerful.
Those four words are enough. Thelonious explodes into a thousand red lights, his screams piercing through the air as he is pulled back into purgatory for another 1300 years - failing to break his cycle, defeated by a witch who has overcome her fear.
Raven pulls Octavia onto her feet and the three sister witches embrace, glad their Friday night filled with fear has finally come to an end.
Octavia waltzed into the living room and tossed herself onto the laps of Raven and Clarke who were sitting on the sofa, her feet dangling off the armrest.
"Octavia!" Raven groaned, pushing her youngest sister off of her lap.
Octavia adjusted herself so she could sit regularly in between her sisters. "So, Raven! Big bad witch! How exactly did you defeat the ancient demon of fear!" A foolish smile tugged at her lips as she impersonated a paparazzi harassing a famous celebrity, she raised her fist to Raven's mouth, pretending to hold a microphone in her hands.
Raven pushed Octavia's hand down. "It was weird..." she spoke quietly as she thought of what had happened last night. "Mom was there, in the lake with me."
"Mom?" Clarke asked, her brows furrowed.
Raven nodded her head a smile spreading across her face, "I know I sound crazy, but she was there. She was so peaceful, she took my hand and brought me to the surface."
Clarke shook her head and placed a hand on Raven's knee, "That doesn't sound crazy. I wish I could've seen her..."
"Me too." Octavia added.
"I'm just glad you're both alright." Raven pulls her two sisters into a hug, "I love you guys."
Clarke breaks away, "What did you just say?"
"I love you." Raven speaks silently, breaking through her brick wall of emotions.
Clarke and Octavia share a smile, "That's the first time in a long time that you've said that to me." Clarke says and Octavia nods her head in agreement.
"I know. It's just ever since mom died, I've been afraid to say it. I didn't want to lose anyone else." Raven shakes her head, regretting that she hadn't said those three special words a long time ago.
"We're not going anywhere, promise." Clarke forms the hug again, and the three sisters hold each other for a while until there's a knock at the door.
"I'll get it!" Octavia shot up and made her way to the front door.
Octavia was greeted with the sight of a scrawny man slightly taller than herself, there was a nerdy charm to the handsome stranger. Octavia batted her eyelashes when the man stuck his hand out, a gesture for a handshake.
"Hello." There was a formal tone embedded within the man's voice. "I just moved in across the street. My name is Jasper."
